WildChina’s Beijing office will be closed on Monday, May 3, 2010, due to the May holiday in China.

During this time, please contact the DC office with any inquiries by emailing us at info@wildchina.com, or by calling 1-888-902-8808.

In our ongoing efforts to assist those in Qinghai who suffered greatly from the Yushu earthquake, WildChina follows our peers in the travel world and their suggestions for providing aid to the area, in addition to providing our own insights.

One news item that particularly caught our eye was travel guru Peter Greenberg‘s article, Volunteer Vacations: Disaster Assistance in Haiti, Chile & China, on how to get involved in aid efforts to these three disaster-stricken areas. Combining service and travel, Greenberg’s article provides concrete ways to contribute to these regions’ health, community, and rebuilding efforts.

One of our highlights from the article is UNICEF’s efforts for women and children in Yushu. Greenberg writes,

The agency is [...] joining hands with China’s National Working Committee on Children and Women to establish ‘child-friendly spaces’ where young survivors of the earthquake can receive psycho-social support in a protective environment.

In addition to providing relief materials, UNICEF will be providing very important and valuable services to preserve the psyche of those surviving in Yushu. For more information, visit UNICEF’s homepage.

A complete list of Greenberg’s ways to provide disaster assistance can be found on Peter Greenberg’s blog.

Explore the ways that WildChina is helping in Yushu on the WildChina blog.

The question, “What is white tea?” is one that I’ve been struggling to answer for months. While many tea producers in northern Zhejiang Province claim that the only difference between white and green tea lies in the trees that produce them, others have consistently insisted that the difference is in their processing. After many weeks of struggling with this question, I went to Yao Guokun, Director of the China International Tea Culture Institute and Professor at almost every tea research center in Zhejiang Province.

White tea, Yao told me, is one of the six primary types of Chinese tea. These teas, he continued, are classified by their processing methods, not by their tree type. This means that the technical difference between white and green tea is in their processing.

There are many different methods by which green tea can be processed, but all green teas have one thing in common—they are fired after a very short withering period in order to halt any further oxidation. White teas, however, are never fired. So, while green teas are the least oxidized of all teas, white teas are the least processed.

Although many people consider the famous and extremely valuable Anji White Tea to be white tea, according to Yao and China’s leading tea classifiers, it is not. Since Anji White Tea passes through an early firing process, it is technically green tea. It comes from a varietal of camellia sinensis that was discovered about 20 years ago in the mountains of Anji County, Zhejiang Province, located 75 km north of Hangzhou and well known as the setting for the box office hit Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

The Anji White Tea tree is yellower than the typical tea tree, and when its leaves are steeped, a unique phenomenon occurs: the face of the Anji White Tea leaf turns a light green, almost white color, and its center vein becomes dark, emerald green. Its flavor is much lighter and sweeter than other green teas, and, consequently, this rare tea’s price is typically much higher.

White tea, as aforementioned, never passes through the firing stage that green tea does. After it is picked, the tea withers in the open air, then generally in the sun, and, if the tea processor has the technology, the leaves will be placed in a drying machine until its water content hits zero. If a processor doesn’t have access to such a machine, then the tea will be periodically placed outside in the sun to further wither and dry out the leaves.

The most famous of all white tea comes from Fuding, Fujian Province. The leaves that are used to make this tea come from one of two types of domestic tea trees or from wild tea trees; the two domestic plants are named Dabaihao (大白豪 or Big White Hair) and Xiaobaihao (小白毫 or Little White Hair). The names of these plants are derived from the white hairs covering the bud of their tea leaves, as displayed in the picture above.

Anji White Tea and Fuding White Tea have very different traits, histories, processing methods, and come from very different trees and environments. One thing they have in common is that they are two of China’s most respected teas. In order to further our understanding of Anji and Fuding White Teas, we will travel next to their homelands.

In late March, WildChina founder Mei Zhang blogged
about colleague Sunshine’s trip to and future work with an elementary school in Yubeng, a Tibetan village in Yunnan province.

Recently, Sunshine gave us an update on the status of WildChina’s aid to Yubeng.

The valley near Yubeng Village

“The books on plants and stones have been just sent out. Thanks to [WildChina colleague] Li Ling’s help, the teachers and kids will have books to learn about different kinds of fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. [WildChina colleague] Catherine also helped to get stone samples – this is wonderful for the kids to tell different stones apart.”

WildChina looks forward to continued support of schools like Yubeng Primary School.

WildChina is always in regular contact with guides to plan trips, create itineraries, survey new destinations, and more. Through this communication, our colleagues learn about local day-to-day life in provinces all over China – the stories that we might not find when reading a newspaper, magazine, or news site.

One of our most recent stories comes from Xiao, our local partner in Guizhou, on a drought that has plagued the southwest province since last fall:

“Since last September, most places in Guizhou, and even in other parts of southwest China, have been dry without rain. Until this February, this was a big problem for local residents: rivers vanished, waterwells ceased to exist, lakes became little water ponds. People are truly suffering from the lack of water, because it’s now so hard to even find water for drink. The crops died quite quickly, and many larger animals have died. As a result, young people who were making a living in the cities have had to return home to carry water home from far away. Other villagers have tried to dig water wells, but as Guizhou is largely made up of Karst stone, the soil is incredibly rocky and hard to penetrate. People are barely able to make wells with basic tools like hoes, spades, and axes…

Villages in Guizhou, like this one, have been plagued with water issues since last fall.

“Local residents had to ask the government for help, and eventually help arrived, from professional digging teams to charity organizations. I have been helping these teams in the countryside, which is the reason why I’ve barely had internet access recently. I’ve witnessed how much water was available for residents to use daily – it was so little. One 87-year-old man commented that he had never seen Guizhou this dry in his entire life.

“With more teams coming, more money with which to buy bottled water, more artificial rain falling, and more water canals being built, things have started to improve. After 7 days in southwest Guizhou, the area of the province most affected by the drought, I was able to go home. Home is so good: there is still enough water for washing and cooking. I am so thankful for that.”

Supplies for The Orphanage School/Rokpa arrives in Yushu
The supplies truck that Europe director Veronique d’Antras had help send out to Yushu has arrived yesterday and goods have been distributed to the Rokpa children. We were told that the excess goods will be distributed to folks in need in the countryside around Yushu. (Note that general Aid and support is yet to reach these areas outside of Yushu Town.)

Tashi returns to Yushu to provide on-the-ground support
Tashi, our former WildChina colleague and studying doctor, is on his way back to Yushu from Shanghai today. WildChina needs someone strong and knowledgeable on the ground to provide comfort, materials, and direct the distribution to our friends in Yushu. He is a true local who knows the place well he is well-placed to assist us in developing an aid process. He will bring whatever he can in terms of medicine and supplies.

Samdeg to speak with Lama
Samdeg, who lost his mother and sister in the earthquake, has been put in touch with a Lama who is a friend of Veronique’s. We hope that by introducing them, they can find ways to help each other through these tough times.

Without the help of all our friends in Yushu, we would not have had the opportunity or the good fortune to successfully run trips in Qinghai province. They are like family to us, and there is much they can do to help the current situation in Yushu. We need to help them in the hope that they can then help others.

Tashi (扎西) in his native Qinghai Province

Tashi Maqu Dorje is originally from Yushu and is a former WildChina colleague. At the end of 2006, Tashi left WildChina to pursue a medical degree. One of his greatest attributes is his almost native command of the English language.

During the summer of 2007, he was our local trip planner for the Tibetan Grand Horse Racing Festival and luxury camp in Yushu. He worked closely with WildChina Directors Veronique d’Antras, Sunshine Shang and Paul Moreno in making the trip a reality. He put WildChina in touch with the many people, including his family who worked at our camp in Bartang (around 45 kilometers south of Yushu).

Samdeg is a schoolteacher who has been our camp manager in Yushu and helped in the trekking portion of our trip, setting up the remote camp. His relatives had grazing rights to the land where we set up camp, and our camp gear has been stored in his uncles’s house in Bartang for the past two years.

Samdeg’s family had a house in Yushu near the Rokpa-sponsored Orphanage School. He is a very kind, patient and diligent man, making the daily drive to the village school where he teaches. It was because of this that he was not home in the morning of the quake. His late mother and sister were tragically not as lucky, and he is suffering greatly as a result of these two losses.

Niyma Tenzing is the director and manager of the Rokpa Orphanage School in Yushu. He is instrumental in running and maintaining the orphanage, which cares for around 500 children. A number of graduates from the Orphanage School have attained a proficient degree of English at the University of Xining, and some become Tibetan doctors. A number have also returned to Yushu to further expand and run the orpanage’s activities and education.

WildChina deeply thanks our friends, partners, and clients for their continued interest in helping those in need in Yushu, Qinghai province, which was recently hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake.

As we have received many emails from past clients and friends asking about the situation, we wanted to provide further on-the-ground news from Yushu.

Our Europe Team Director, Veronique d’Antras, has been at the forefront of WildChina’s efforts to help the people of Yushu. After coordinating a truckload of supplies to be sent to Yushu with Tashi, one of our Yushu partners and a Qinghai native, she hopes that it has arrived. The road from Xining to Yushu – a major route into the Yushu area – was damaged by the earthquake, and traffic has subsequently been delayed.

While there has been an incredible influx of volunteers into the region, there are a few setbacks that are making the distribution of aid more difficult. For one, areas outside of Yushu that were affected by the earthquake are incredibly remote, meaning that rural villagers are still in most need of aid. Furthermore, the Tibetan/Mandarin language barrier, altitude sickness, and cold weather, including snow and hail in the region, has slowed down volunteers. Because of the inclement weather, several aid trucks overturned on the road from Xining to Yushu. Several journalists noted that long lines were forming for food distribution.

A mass prayer ceremony for the victims was held by monks and others in Yushu on April 20th, following the cremation of around 1,000 bodies by the Yushu Tibetan monks on April 17th.

On a positive note, one of our Yushu partners, Samdeg, has been located. He was previously deemed unharmed, but was unreachable for a few days after the earthquake occurred. We are now working with him to set up WildChina tents to provide those in the region with temporary housing

Furthermore, Xinhua reports that post-quake reconstruction has been on the agenda. A reporter learned on Monday, April 19 from the Government of Qinghai Province that the overall objective of reconstruction will be building a high-altitude ecotourism city. (Source: Xinhua, April 19, 2010)

The Chinese government declared a nationwide period of mourning with flags at half mast on Wednesday afternoon, April 21st (Beijing time), to express condolences to earthquake victims. All public entertainment was put on hold. (Source: Guardian UK, April 20, 2010)

If you are interested in donating to Rokpa International on behalf of The Orphanage School in Yushu, please see the following information:

UPDATED: To donate anywhere outside of China (besides the UK), please visit the Rokpa Yushu Relief site. Here you can find account information for the preferred currency in which you wish to donate money. Your payment will be made directly to Rokpa’s Switzerland headquarters, where the money can be quickly obtained for relief use in Yushu.

Additionally, you can now pay through PayPal via Rokpa’s Yushu Relief blog. Simply click on the PayPal button and follow instructions.

For those living in the UK, please refer to the Rokpa UK site, originally linked on this post, for information on donating in British Pounds.

Michael Zhao, of New York-based Asia Society’s CHINA GREEN, has produced another incredible video on environmental change in China and its societal and cultural implications for the Chinese people. WildChina was happy to contribute photos for such a meaningful video.

Snow-capped peaks of Mt. Khawa Karpo, also known as Meili Snow Mountain

“Fading Shangri-La 失色中的香格里拉” highlights the rapid change of Mt. Khawa Karpo, or Meili Snow Mountain in Chinese, which is hailed as the most sacred mountain for Tibetans in Yunnan. The video is an important follow-up to Orville Schell’s (also of Asia Society) February 2010 article, “China’s Magic Melting Mountain,” about which we previously blogged.

Visually stunning and more relevant than ever, this video highlights the impending threat of a lost Tibetan religious figure, holy land, and spiritual community in Yunnan as Mt. Khawa Karpo’s glacial peaks continue to melt.

From the CHINA GREEN website:

Mt Khawa Karpo, known by Chinese as Meili Snow Mountain, is among the most sacred mountains in the Tibetan world. It is here in the steep valleys that novelist James Hilton set his Lost Horizon, describing the utopian wonderland of Shangri-La where time stands still. Tibetans have long worshiped this holy mountain, regarded as one of the highest spiritual gods in this mountainous region of China.

Yet as the earth warms, glacier retreat and ice loss here over the last decade have reached alarming levels and the melting is only accelerating. As a result, locals worry that the soul of this holy land – their Shangri-La – is slipping away. With it, a supernatural source of blessing for their people and communities is feared to be disappearing.

Watch a trailer of the video here (and for the full version, go to CHINA GREEN’s website):

Fading Shangri-la trailer on YouTube